Rocky Road Brownies and Lemon Tartlettes

This past week we had a party at work for our most favorite clients! We chose to have a post-holiday party instead of one during the Holidays and it turned out to be a great success! We served assorted wines, all types of cheese, brie, and then I made two baked goods!

My thought process behind everything was to make sure whatever I made was finger-friendly. Meaning, if they didn’t want to use silverware, or even a plate, they wouldn’t have to. That only seems logical to me at a party where Hors d’œuvres are being served.

I knew instantly that one item would be Lemon Tartlettes with Fresh Fruit, and the other I needed a little help from Marta Stewart on. I browsed her website looking for the perfect item, and voila! Rocky Road Brownies. I could cut them up into bit size treats and the chocolate would pair perfectly off the lemon! Yes!

So on to the baking!

Rocky Road Brownies came first. This makes 16, but I cut super small bites and probably got double that.

1/2 cup unsalted butter (cut into pieces plus more for pan)

1 bag (12 oz) semi sweet chocolate chips (I used mini)

1/2 c granulated sugar

1/2 c light brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

3/4 c all-purpose flour – leveled

1 c mini marshmallows

1/2 c chopped nuts such as cashews, pecans, walnuts (I used just walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 8″ square baking pan, then line with parchment paper, leaving two sides to over hang and then butter the paper.

Ok, and as a side note: I ALWAYS use wax paper, forgetting it’s not parchment paper. And half way through the baking process I smell the hint of smoke from the oven. Then I realize, oh crap – I used wax paper again! Ha-ha. So, if you do use wax paper, its ok – but please be careful – it can ignite. And I would actually recommend Pam, or a LOT of butter. The edges of the wax paper really stuck to my brownies.

Ok, next we need to melt the chocolate and butter to get a base for the brownies! Set a heat-proof bowl OVER a saucepan that is simmering with water. Make sure bottom of bowl does not touch the water. Combine butter and 1 cup chocolate chips. Heat, stirring occasionally, until melted, 3 – 5 minutes.

Remove mixture from heat and stir in sugars, salt, then eggs – and finally the flour. Stir until combined, do no beat.

Then pour into our prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. You will know its done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with moist crumbs. I cooked mine more on the 25-30 minute side to create more of a “fudge” effect, feel free to play around with this.

Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining chocolate chips. Be careful to spread them evenly as they will start to melt immediately (at least the minis did). Then, add marshmallows then nuts. Bake until chocolate is nice and shiny and marshmallows are puffy – about 5 minutes.

Here they are pulled fresh from the oven:

Let them cool completely and then use the over hang to lift from pan. Cut and serve!

I’ll show you the final product after we go over the tartlettes!

Now, I mentioned I wanted to do something that was finger-friendly. Well, I am all about baking from scratch, but I needed a little help this time as I had to bake everything on a Tuesday night and didn’t have time to make personal shortbread trays for the tartlettes. So, I went to the grocery and got those great little Keebler mini graham cracker crusts. Well turns out they cannot be removed from their tin pan with out crumbling to pieces in your hand.

:(

Sad I know! At least they are super cute right?! Unfortunately I had already started pouring my custard into the shells when the thought to spread butter and bake them came to mind. That might have given them more stability. But anyway, it was too late. It turned out they were very easy to eat with spoons…

Let start with our ingredients:

Makes 2 cups (I needed 24 tarts, so I doubled everything)

3 eggs

5 tblsp butter, melted

1 c granulated sugar

juice and finely grated rind of 2 lemons (grate first, then juice)

Seasonal fruit (i used strawberries, raspberries and blackberries)

Here are the directions directly from my mom’s email!

“Beat the eggs into the melted butter; then stir in the sugar. Beat until thoroughly combined. Add the lemon juice and rind gradually. Cook in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until thickened, stirring constantly. I strain it while it is still warm – this strains any bit of cooked egg so your curd is nice and smooth. Place plastic wrap directly on top of the curd and put in fridge to cool. You can make this ahead and store in fridge for up to one week.”

You’ll know the custard is chilled with it has thickened even more in the fridge and, of course, cooled completely. I used my hand dandy ice cream scoop and put one spoonful is each crust. Then I cut up my berries and placed accordingly.

Can we say yum? Oh, and did you notice – curd (or I call it custard at times) is Gluten Free

Here are pics of the final product at the party, and all the food trimmings! Enjoy!